Best Baby Gear Store

Welcome to one-stop shopping for top-of-the-line stuff your baby will puke on. Service is exemplary: For example, employees will gladly assemble your new $1,100 Stokke Xplory stroller, a Norwegian marvel of infant-toting engineering, for free. They’ll even give you a loaner if it ever needs a tune-up. 

Best Haircut for the Money

It’s easy to see why the cool kids (Tavi Gevinson, Jeff Tweedy) favor this understated Logan Square salon: The chatty, funky stylists can pull off everything from chic low-maintenance styles to showy sculptural dos. Cuts are $75 for women and $65 for men—and when you walk in the door, you get your pick of a … Read more

Best Children's Clothing Store

Granted, a $295 cashmere onesie isn’t for everyone (unless your name is North West). But these French-made clothes, which include baby-blue girls’ trenches and structured boys’ blazers, are refreshingly free from glitter-laden goofiness. With exactly six stitches per centimeter, invisible hems, and hand embroidery, they’re practically couture.

Best Acupuncturist

The trusted acupuncturist to the Lululemon set, Grainne (pronounced GRA-nya) McKeown isn’t just a wizard with needles. She also custom mixes herbal remedies (which only about a quarter of acupuncturists are trained to do), teaches meditation, and advises on lifestyle changes to support your health. Treatments start at $85 a session.

Best Yoga Studio

If your preferred yoga style is vinyasa, which focuses on flow, you’re probably already a devotee of this excellent mini-chain. Its teachers are experienced, the classes are small and varied (from power-yoga sweatfests to stellar restorative sessions), and the New Age spirituality is kept to a minimum. (Radiohead soundtracked a recent visit.) Even the mats … Read more

Best Reweaver

Snagged tweed trousers and moth-eaten cashmere sweaters arrive here from all over the country, thanks to Without a Trace’s mastery of the dying art of invisible French reweaving. (Seriously: It leaves not a lump or pucker behind.) The staff won’t quote prices until inspecting a garment, but fixing a small hole in a merino sweater … Read more

Best Florist That Won’t Break the Bank

Creative types love this place for its unexpected flower combinations and unusual containers (in a recent arrangement for the Gene Siskel Film Center, succulents were woven in with metal hardware). But the staff can also whip up a more traditional—but still inspired—arrangement like nobody’s business. Prices start at $25 for a small julep cup design.

Best Auction House

Sure, Christie’s and Sotheby’s offer blockbuster artwork, but do they also sell Barbies? (Hindman has a collection of the classic dolls up for bid from August 3 to 14.) If you want variety, this is the place: It sells everything from Audubon prints to Tiffany diamonds to the contents of Lilly Pulitzer’s estate. As one … Read more

Best Shoe and Leather Repair

Calling Luis Coronel a cobbler is like calling Patrick Kane a skater. A certified cordwainer (meaning he has mastered the skill of building new shoes from fine leathers), Coronel and his team expertly repair and revive footwear, handbags, and leather apparel. Got a damaged $35,000 Hermès alligator bag? The Gus crew will track down a … Read more

Best Women's Clothing Store

Though it has some worthy competition (Neapolitan, Blake), this lipstick-red façade stands out for its unsurpassed selection of fashion-forward garments, shoes, and accessories, many by designers (Rodarte, Duro Olowu) you won’t find elsewhere in town. Owner Ikram Goldman also stocks the likes of Chanel, Céline, and Manolo Blahnik. Bring a fat wallet.